193 Reasons to Have Pride: Part 3

Including the people who finally care about bullying and straight dudes who are rooting for us.

BY Advocate Contributors

May 18 2011 4:00 AM ET

BecauseIOWA SENATE MAJORITY LEADER MIKE GRONSTAL WON’T MESS WITH MARRIAGE EQUALITY The Iowa house has approved a measure that would allow the public to vote on a constitutional amendment to overturn marriage equality, but even in the face of mounting conservative attacks, senate majority leader Mike Gronstal refuses to consider the measure in his chamber. We like Mike!

BecauseNEW YORKERS ARE TOUGH — AND FUNNY We all know New Yorkers won’t take it lying down (unless they want to), so the political action committee Fight Back New York sprang into action after the state senate voted to reject a bill to legalize marriage equality. And to drum up support, prominent New Yorkers like actress Rosie Perez took to YouTube, outraged that gays could marry in Iowa but not in her hometown of Brooklyn. “Are you kidding me?” she quipped. “Iowa’s got the jump on us — New York?!” And Modern Family’s Jesse Tyler Ferguson shared his plan to marry 30 Rock’s Alec Baldwin, who responded by his own call to support Fight Back N.Y. — “because no one tells a New Yorker that they can’t marry Jesse Tyler Ferguson.”

BecauseWE’RE COMING OUT ALL OVER Closet doors have opened in some surprising places. In the past year or so we’ve welcomed the Republican Party’s former campaign honcho Ken Mehlman, country singer Chely Wright, Christian musician Jennifer Knapp, Georgia megachurch pastor Jim Swilley, and Swedish professional soccer star Anton Hysen (pictured). In addition, those coming out in supposedly friendlier environments, like actress and model Amber Heard, progressive radio talker Stephanie Miller, and actress and chat show host Sara Gilbert, help to prove that we really are everywhere.

BecauseTHE ECONOMIST PUBLISHED AN OBITUARY FOR DAVID KATO, THE SLAIN UGANDAN GAY RIGHTS ACTIVISTObituaries in the venerable British newsweekly are reserved for people who change the world and leave a lasting impression, such as the martyred Ugandan gay rights activist David Kato. The advocacy officer for Sexual Minorities Uganda was brutally murdered in January after he and others won a lawsuit against the Rolling Stone newspaper, which had published activists’ names and called for them to be hanged. His accused murderer Enock Nsubuga (who reportedly confessed) is being tried in the Uganda high court, but with widespread homophobia fanned by conservative American evangelicals, the verdict is far from certain.

BecauseTHE DUTCH MILITARY IS READY FOR PRIDEMembers of the Dutch armed forces will float in uniform on their own boat this August at the Gay Pride Canal Parade in Amsterdam. Could a joint exercise with the U.S. Navy be next?